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Welcome to yet another insightful edition of Market Mosaic.
This week, 46% of small employers use AI, and gasoline averaged $6.24 a gallon in California against $3.96 in Texas.
We also looked at how retail sales excluding gasoline grew just 0.2%, and how US freight spending jumped 20.4% from a year earlier.
Ask the Desk, our latest AI tool, for data-driven insights on what they mean for your business and market.
We are also pleased to share our latest edition in the "Conversations with Market Mosaic" series, featuring Hilary Lewis on technology adoption and AI readiness. Find the excerpt below the Supply Chain section.
Insights Team, Rwazi
Small businesses that use AI expect stronger hiring and revenue growth than those that don't
A late-2025 survey of 5,248 US small employers found 46% use AI tools, and another 15% plan to adopt within a year. Among users, 63% call AI important to production and 51% have built it partly or fully into their processes.
When you subtract firms expecting increases from those expecting decreases, users score +33 on hiring against +15 for non-users, and +48 on revenue against +21. Even so, 77% report no change in labor costs, while 31% say AI lifted sales.
Key Insights
Small-firm AI use is near half, and the payoff so far shows up in growth rather than savings: 31% report higher sales, while 77% saw no change in labor costs. See how your own AI adoption compares.
Chart: Average regular gasoline price by US state, September 2026. Data visualization by Market Mosaic.
Gasoline averaged $6.24 a gallon in California and $3.96 in Texas and Indiana in September
California averaged $6.24 a gallon in September, 58% above the $3.96 paid in Texas and Indiana, a $2.28 gap. Seven states averaged $5.00 or more, all in the West.
The median across the 50 states and DC was $4.39, with 15 averaging $4.50 or more. That spread comes as national gasoline prices sit 34.2% above a year ago.
Key Insights
A $2.28 per-gallon gap means fuel-heavy operations in the West carry a structurally higher cost base than peers elsewhere, so location belongs in any margin comparison. See how your own regional costs compare.
Retail sales rose 0.8% in September, but excluding gasoline they grew just 0.2%
US retail and food services sales reached $745.0 billion in September, up 0.8% from August and 6.3% from a year earlier. Gas stations led the gain, with sales up 6.4% in the month.
Excluding gasoline, sales rose just 0.2%. Sentiment is weakening too, with the preliminary October reading falling 1.8 points to 46.3, a 5-month low, while year-ahead inflation expectations rose to 4.7%.
Key Insights
The headline masks softer underlying demand: gas station sales rose 6.4% while everything else grew 0.2%, and with sentiment at 46.3, retailers should plan for cautious baskets heading into the holidays. See how your own demand plan holds up.
Truckload linehaul rates rose 10.1% in September as freight shipments grew for a second straight year
US freight shipments rose 1.9% from a year earlier in September, a second straight annual gain after a 3.5-year downturn. Seasonally adjusted, they rose 1.4% in the month, following a 5.0% gain in August.
Spending grew far faster, with freight expenditures up 20.4% from a year earlier as higher rates and fuel surcharges added to volume. Truckload linehaul rates rose 10.1% year-over-year and 0.6% month-over-month, slower than this year's 0.9% monthly average.
Key Insights
Spending is growing more than 10 times faster than shipments, 20.4% against 1.9%, so freight costs are rising mainly on price, and budgets built on last year's rates will fall short. See how your own freight costs compare.
In this latest edition of "Conversations with Market Mosaic", we sit down with Hilary Lewis, Community Manager at the Digital Accountants Club.
Hilary builds strategic partnerships, grows industry communities, and helps accountancy firms navigate technology and AI adoption. She shares her insights on Technology Adoption & AI Readiness.
See excerpt below:
Market Mosaic: You’ve seen AI deployed seriously inside a large organization. Without naming anything confidential, what version of AI adoption actually sticks, and what version quietly gets abandoned six months later?
Hilary Lewis: I think it comes down to communication and bringing people along with you.
It’s great to have an IT lead who thinks a new technology is revolutionary, but if the wider team doesn’t understand the strategy, why the decision was made, or how it affects them, adoption becomes an uphill battle.
The technology that sticks isn’t necessarily the most revolutionary. It’s the technology people understand, have a reason to use, and are given the time and support to make part of their working lives.
Blu Dot surpasses 2,000% ROAS with self-serve CTV ads
Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:
After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.
The results speak for themselves. As Blu Dot increased their investment by 10x, ROAS jumped to 2,308% and more page-view conversions surpassed 50,000.
“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”
Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.
North America buys up to 10 million tonnes of road salt from overseas each winter. Atlas Salt (TSXV: SALT) is building a closer source in Newfoundland, projected to generate C$188M a year.
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